Wisdom From Michael
"If I were any better, I would be twins!"
Michael is the kind of guy you love to hate. He is always in a good mood and always has something positive to say. When someone would ask him how he was doing, he would reply, "If I were any better, I would be twins!" He was a natural motivator.
If an employee was having a bad day, Michael was there telling the employee how to look on the positive side of the situation. Seeing this style really made me curious, so one day I went up to Michael and asked him, "I don't get it! You can't be a positive person all of the time. How do you do it?"
Michael replied, "Each morning I wake up and say to myself, you have two choices today. You can choose to be in a good mood or... or a bad mood. I choose to be in a good mood. Each time something bad happens, I can choose to be a victim or...I can choose to learn from it. I choose to
learn from it. Every time someone comes to me complaining, I can choose to accept their complaining or...I can point out the positive side of life. I choose the positive.
"Yeah, right, it's not that easy," I protested. "Yes, it is," Michael said. "Life is all about choices.
When you cut away all the junk, every situation is a choice. You choose how you react to situations. You choose how people affect your mood. You choose to be in a good mood or bad mood. The bottom line: It's your choice how you live your life."
Several years later, I heard that Michael was involved in a serious accident, falling some 60 feet from a communications tower. After hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, Michael was released from the hospital with rods placed in his back. I saw Michael about six months after the accident.
When I asked him how he was, he replied, "If I were any better, I'd be twins. Wanna see my scars?" I didn't see his wounds, but I did ask him what had gone through his mind as the accident took place.
"As I lay on the ground, I remembered that I had two choices: I could choose to live or I could choose to die. I chose to live. The paramedics were great. They kept telling me I was going to be fine. But when they wheeled me into the ER and I saw the expressions on the faces of the doctors and nurses, I got really scared. In their eyes, I read ‘he's a dead man.’ I knew I needed to
take action.
"There was a big burly nurse shouting questions at me. She asked if I was allergic to anything. ‘Yes, I replied.’ The doctors and nurses stopped working as they waited for my reply. I took a deep breath and yelled, ‘Gravity.’ Over laughter, I told them, ‘I am choosing to live. Operate on me as if I am alive, not dead.’”
Michael lived, thanks to the skill of his doctors, but also because of his amazing attitude. Everyday we have the choice to live fully. Attitude, after all, is everything.
Author Unknown - submitted by Sister Maureen Studer
